The said church.[Lescar Cathedral from the north-west, photographed by me, 2014]

The cathedral* at Lescar, Notre Dame de l’Assomption de Lescar, in the Béarn region of France was originally built in the early 12th century. The town was built at the beginning of the 11th century along the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. In 1120, Bishop Gui de Lons started construction of the cathedral in the Romanesque style. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the church served as the burial place for the monarchs of Navarre.

Notice how many of these are Queens of Navarre.["Tombe rois Navarre," photographed by Jibi44, source: Wikimedia Commons]

Protestant violence in the 16th century damaged the church and led to the loss of its relics, those of St. Galactoire.** Several of the funerary monuments were lost and part of the roof fell in. The church was rebuilt in the 17th century. As a result, most of the extant floor tiles and mosaics and all of the stained glass windows come from after this time period.

I like the guy's hat. I do have to wonder about his hunting horn's apparent levitation abilities though.[Floor mosaic from the north side of the apse,12th century or Gallo-Roman][photographed by Jibi44, Source:Wikimedia Commons]

“Most” is an important word. The floor mosaics in the apse survived. There is some debate about whether they date to the 12th century or come from the earlier Gallo-Roman town and were reused as the floor of the cathedral. A mosaic inscription in the floor mentioning Gui de Lons supports the former hypothesis but does not confirm it.

Again with the weirdly positioned hunting horn.[Floor mosaic from the south side of the apse, 12th century or Gallo-Roman][photographed by me, 2014]

A legend from the area also supports this theory, though how true it may be is unknown. According to the story, the archer in the mosaic came from Al-Andalus and had lost his leg fighting against the encroaching Christian kingdoms. A replacement was created for him and he eventually went back into battle, where this time he was captured and ended up the slave of Gui de Lons. A friendship grew between them and the bishop soon freed him. What’s more, he preserved his friend’s image in the floor of his cathedral. How true the story is we don’t know, but it does show us some interesting things. The archer is not hindered in either the mosaic or the legend by the loss of his leg. He goes from warrior to slave to friend and hunting partner. He passes from Muslim territory to Christian, but whether he converted is never mentioned, at least in the versions of the story presented today. *If one wanted to be really technical about things one would actually call it a “proto-cathedral” because it’s no longer the seat of a bishop, but almost nobody cares to be that specific. It was at one point the seat of a bishop. Therefore, most people call it a cathedral. **What a name.

Sources/Further Reading:La Cathédral de Lescar - Notre Dame en Béarn (Note: This website is all in French. Even if you don't read French, it has some photos worth looking at.)Lescar Cathedral - WikipediaCathédral Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Lescar - WikipediaGui de Lons - Wikipedia (Note: I link to the French article here and not the English one because the latter has no information of interest.)Lescar - Wikipedia (French article)Lescar - Wikipedia (English article. Once again, the French article has more and better information.)I also have some photographs of one of the informational placards put up by the Tourist Office of Lescar if anyone wants to see them.